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Vesa compatibility and univbe in dos, particularly with an et6000

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First post, by toshiba_t1000

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I'm trying to understand when exactly univbe is necessary in dos. I understand mid-90s cards will have varying levels of vesa support, and to my knowledge univbe can be used when that compatibility is lacking.

I'm using a tseng et6000, which to my knowledge has hardware vesa 1.2?

I'm trying to figure out the following things:

* to what extent is the tseng et6000 vesa compatible (in dos), and in what situations will it require univbe?

* what games (in dos) will require univbe, particularly with the et6000 (I believe quake needs vesa 2 or 3?)

* if and when I need univbe, what drivers would I want, in dos, with an et6000

Reply 1 of 4, by theelf

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If i dont remember bad, ET6000 have vesa 2,0 support in bios

vesa is ussed in too many things, specially in late DOS era, many software, like video player, picture viewers, etc specially dos emulators, like callus, kega, genecyst, etc etc all have a great boost with vesa. vesa is need for tweaks video mode too, like use 320x200 at 140hz if you like

about games, i dont play much, but xmen for example use it, or alien for 64k color

Reply 2 of 4, by eddman

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It's called VBE; it resides in the video ROM, when available. If the game/program works, nothing needs to be done. If it doesn't, then a VBE TSR (that provides the needed VBE version) needs to be run, either UniVBE or one of those released by the video chip vendor. The required VBE version is usually mentioned in the games' readme files.

Run "VBETEST.EXE" from the UniVBE package (BEFORE applying UniVBE itself) to see the VBE version of the card.

Reply 3 of 4, by toshiba_t1000

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eddman wrote on 2026-03-20, 15:13:

It's called VBE; it resides in the video ROM, when available. If the game/program works, nothing needs to be done. If it doesn't, then a VBE TSR (that provides the needed VBE version) needs to be run, either UniVBE or one of those released by the video chip vendor. The required VBE version is usually mentioned in the games' readme files.

Run "VBETEST.EXE" from the UniVBE package (BEFORE applying UniVBE itself) to see the VBE version of the card.

thank you! that clarifies a fair bit, thanks.

Reply 4 of 4, by lolo799

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You can also use radsi.exe from the old Smacker package to show which vesa version and video modes your card supports:
https://web.archive.org/web/19990417232128/ht … com/smkmain.htm

Screenshots from my oldest laptop:

The attachment 20260322_113048.jpg is no longer available
The attachment 20260322_113111.jpg is no longer available

PCMCIA Sound, Storage & Graphics

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